Training together with Community and the AA

In a guest blog, Community rep Paul Thomas – pictured below with AA Employee Relations Specialist Paul Parker – provides an update on today’s AA staff training session.

Community union representatives at the AA engaged on the second round of process training this week, working with Employee Relations specialist Paul Parker.

There was really positive engagement and a feeling of open discussion and learning. Working together through policy and process, and engaging over changes in legislation, helped us all to further our understanding and learn more about the best way to move forward for our members.

Chris Hale, a Regional Organiser from Community Union attend the session and outlined he had been working with business in the sector for years to try and organise joint learning pathways. I myself have been working with Employee Relations to achieve best outcomes and deliver training across union branches, but today was the first session where we looked at policy in detail.

Initial feedback from the group was incredibly positive. AA rep Richard Gingell said: “I really loved it. It was really good to build some rapport with an ER person and it helped me feel like we are on the right path and that the push-back I sometimes experience is out of process”. 

There were also discussions about wellbeing and the offerings from the business, the interpretation of how we use Occupational Health and details of relevant Apps.

It was good to get some clarity. This will help our members and union representatives to gain the best outcomes.